Read and help me with a title!
by Ariane Morningstar
Summary: Me and several friends have been landed in Tortall! A bit over-done, I know, but it is a whole lot of fun to write!


Hello, all you wonderful people who have decided to read my story! This is my very first fan fic, so when you review (of course your going to take the time to review, right?), please, be as critical as you like of my work. If you think I need help, tell me so! And without further ado, as I hate reading really, really long author notes at the beginning of stories so I will not write them (hopefully), on with the story which is cleverly titled. um, yeah, after you read my story could you also put title ideas in your review. I seem to be in desperate need of them. Thanks, and on with the story!  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own, never have, never will, any of Tamora Pierce's characters, settings, etc. I will not profit from this story, because that would be plagiarizing, and plagiarizing is bad. Why does one have to put disclaimers on every story on this website? Doesn't the fact that we've put it in the fan fiction section of fanfic.net mean anything at all?!? Anyway, I don't own Tamora Pierce's stuff, though I wish I did, but I do own lots of things at my house!*said very brightly, wanting and needing to cheer self up* On with the story! (which desperately needs a title)  
  
Lady Adriane of Moonsward, a small person that looked as though a good gust of wind would send her tumbling, sat at her desk, studying a stack of papers in front of her, occasionally picking up a pen and making small marks and corrections in the paper.  
  
"You would think," she said, standing up and stretching "that since I have been at court for the past two years, Eli would be able to deal with problems like this on his own."  
  
"Lady?" the messenger boy that had brought her the latest stack of papers stepped forward hesitantly.  
  
"What!?" snapped Adriane  
  
"The steward thought that you would just like to know about the problem. He has already dealt with it."  
  
Adriane slowly turned on her heel to look at him. "I am going to walk out of here and pretend I didn't hear that," she said, her voice suddenly low and dangerous "I will be out in the city. If you know what is good for you, you file those papers for me, then hasten to Eli and tell him not to bother me with trivial problems he has already taken care of!"  
  
The messenger scurried to obey as she grabbed her cloak and stalked out of the room in a swirl of emerald-green skirts. * * *  
  
Vixen, Queen of the Rouge in Tortall, sat absent-mindedly flipping a dagger in her left hand. Her companion, a girl of about twelve, sat on the edge of the roof, dangling her feet over the edge.  
  
Occasionally, she would point out a wealthy merchant or otherwise occupied person, and Vixen would dutifully move to the edge and point out why, or why not, that particular person would be a person worth robbing.  
  
"Oh! Look at that lady!" Kit (the girl) squeaked. With a sigh of exasperation, Vixen moved to the edge.  
  
"Oh, you're right," she said, a note of surprise in her voice "She is worth getting own for, even," Vixen commented as she let herself over the side, lightly landing on her feet as she dropped to the ground.  
  
The lady in question happened to be Adriane. She had left the palace in a huff, with such a story look on her face that no one even thought to challenge her as she made her way out.  
  
Vixen and Kit trailed Adriane for about a mile through the twists and turns of the city, until she calmed down and noticed a sign for an inn. She turned and walked straight into Vixen's lair (A/N: Ha! The Vixen's Lair! Haha! Ha, ha.ha.okay never mind) and domain.  
  
Vixen nearly let out a giddy laugh. "What luck!" she whispered excitedly to Kit "Come on, this way." They dashed off to come in through one of the many back entrances to the inn. The pair came in through the kitchen, on the way passing a small vial of sleep potion to the barmaid with instructions to slip it into the wealthy newcomer's drink.  
  
Vixen waltzed out of the kitchen, Kit trailing in her wake, and plopped herself down on her 'throne' in front of the fireplace. As she accepted a mug of lemonade from the barmaid, she never drank alcohol; she surveyed the layout in front of her.  
  
The newcomer had received her mug, but hadn't touched it yet. She noticed Vixen looking at her, stood up, and walked over.  
  
"Would you be the one who put the sleeping potion in my drink" Adriane inquired innocently, though with a sly smile on her face.  
  
Vixen was, for one of the few times in her life, speechless. The noise level in the inn plummeted, all waiting to see how the Queen would respond to the audacity of this stranger.  
  
"Perhaps I was, perhaps I wasn't," Vixen said once she found her tongue. "Would you care to have a seat and a clean drink?" she asked, equally innocently, though raising her voice a bit to emphasize the word 'clean'.  
  
"I would like that very much," replied Adriane with a courteous smile. This woman reminded her so much of her lost twin sister, Adelaide. She had to learn more about her past.  
  
The barmaid scurried forward with a new cup, this time filled with lemonade rather than ale. At this, Adriane raised an eyebrow.  
  
Vixen caught the gesture"I don't drink alcohol, nor do I permit it at my high table."  
  
Adriane nodded. She took a dainty sip of her lemonade and remarked "Your high table, what do you mean by that?"  
  
Vixen flung her arms wide and laughed. "You, my dear, have wandered into the most concentrated area of rouges in the city. You have wandered into the headquarters of the Rouge, of which I am Queen."  
  
Adriane, had she been a lesser woman, would have fainted. As she was not, she merely swallowed hard and took a nervous glance around her. Yes, it did seem as though there were more thieves, cutthroats, and general vagabond types in this tavern than there normally were, but then again, she didn't go into many taverns very often, so that was some consolation for not having noticed.  
  
"I see," she said simply "so how did you end up Queen of this-" she paused, the distaste in her voice obvious "-fine establishment?"  
  
A flicker of something- beit anger, hate of sorrow, Adriane couldn't tell- flashed through Vixen's eyes. "I.killed the last King of Thieves," Vixen said slowly, her eyes having settled on burning hate that took Adriane aback after the indecision in the Queen's expression just moments before. She decided to let it drop.  
  
Adriane moved to stand up to leave. "Well, I guess I'll just be-"in an instant, Vixen had her dagger out and pointed at Adriane's throat. "-or I could stay around here for a while," she said, sitting down hard in the seat she had vacated only moments before.  
  
How am I going to get out of here? She wondered, swallowing hard and taking a deep drink from her lemonade. She settled herself down to make small talk with the Queen of Thieves, and to formulate a plan of escape. * * *  
  
Stephanie Chapman, a five foot one inch tall girl with short dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, sat in the band room, cleaning her oboe and putting it away, when she noticed a certain trumpet on a certain shelf. A sly smile spread across her face. She nudged Hannah Brannan, slightly taller than Stephanie with light brown eyes and hair, and Daniel Freeman, a tall guy with fluffy, dark brown hair and eyes, glasses, and just a little bit more roundness around the middle than usual (A/N: but not to much. *sigh*), both of whom were sitting to her right. Identical smiles spread across their faces. They all sat back to wait for-  
  
"WHO PUT THEIR TRUMPET ON MY SHELF!?!" The bassoon player was on the warpath. The bassoon player, better known as Eva Lewis, had been staging an ongoing campaign against the trumpets (A/N: This situation is based on a real life campaign of Eva's. She seems to be very sensitive about her shelf, though Stephanie takes special pleasure in watching these episodes because she has gotten special permission from Eva to put her oboe on the bassoon shelf. Back to the story!), despite the sign taped to it saying 'NO Trumpets on this shelf! Or flutes or clarinets! This is a BASSOON shelf!' This time was the last straw for Eva. Luckily Mr. Coile, the supervising teacher and band director, was absent, probably off copying the oboe parts he always forgets. (A/N: Can you tell this is an old grievance between me and him?)  
  
Eva marched into the storage room with the trumpet and marched out without it. Stephanie, Hannah, and Daniel glanced at each other again. Eva was still marching. She marched over to Adam (whose trumpet it was) and bopped him across the back of the head.  
  
This action which should have produced and exclamation of surprise from Adam instead caused a blinding flash of light. When everybody's vision cleared, all but Eva, Hannah, Stephanie and Daniel were frozen, and a strange lady in full armor, with a shield on her left arm and a sword in her right, stood in the middle of the room in the 'en-guard' position.  
  
All four teenagers were speechless, gape-mouthed and bug-eyed. Eva, as she was on the newcomer's left side, could see the device on the shield and recovered first.  
  
"Keladry?" she said incredulously,"Keladry of Mindelan?!"  
  
These words had no effect on Daniel, who had not (A/N: and still hasn't.) read the 'Protector of the Small' books, but Hannah and Stephanie's jaws dropped even further, if that was even physically possible.  
  
"Why do you know my name, and where am I?" she asked Eva, pointing her sword at her, as the rest of the people seemed to be frozen, in a few cases by astonishment, in most cases by something else.  
  
"Well, um, you see, how sharp is that thing?" Eva managed to spit out.  
  
Stephanie and Hannah had managed to recover by this time and, unbeknownst to Keladry and Eva, held a whispered conference. They realized that, between the three of them, they had all twelve Tortallan books with them at school. They both decided that this was the time to act, regardless of the fact that Keladry had a sword and years of experience against them.  
  
Stephanie cleared her throat, turning all attention to herself. Eva began to edge away from the sword point since Keladry wasn't looking. She assumed her patented "Steffie look" (A/N: a sort of cross between an 'I'm sooo much better than you are' look and a very noble 'you had better listen to me now and ignore everything else' look. Strikes fear into the heart of every person I use it on, and it is very effective in getting them to listen to you.) she launched into her hastily compiled speech.  
  
"You are on Earth, for starters, and here there are three series of books about Tortall. One about you, one about Daine, and one about Lady Alana. We just happen to have all of those books here with us, and if you don't manage to take us back to Tortall with you, well, let's us say that you won't believe what we know about you and your friends."  
  
Keladry struggled to keep her face straight. To think such a ridiculous demand could come from such a smart-looking person! Luckily for her, Daniel gave her a reason to laugh out loud at that moment in the form of a very bemused utterance of "What?"  
  
Wiping the streaming tears from her eyes, Keladry simply motioned all four young people towards her.  
  
"Just-"  
  
"Wait a minute! Can we bring the rest of our crew along?" Eva inquired.  
  
"Are they animated or frozen?"  
  
"Frozen, probably."  
  
"No."  
  
"But-"  
  
"No."  
  
"How about if-"  
  
"No!"  
  
While this was going on, Hannah was scribbling on a piece of paper. "You guys just keep that up for a few minutes while I deliver my note," she quipped, holding said note aloft. It read:  
  
Dear Crew.  
  
Can't explain now. Hit a short person @ school ASAP. You won't get in trouble. See you soon! Hannah, Stephanie, Eva  
  
She raced out the door and down the hall, Stephanie at her heels. Both Kel and Eva shot bemused glances at their retreating backs before returning to their argument.  
  
By the time the pair of miscreants returned, Kel and Eva, so it seemed, had managed to settle their disagreement, although Eva had a very stormy look on her face, with oddly enough, a touch of a smug smile; Kel, a small, smug, triumphant smirk.  
  
"Well, let's get this party through the portals," Kel said, clapping her hands uncharacteristically, and very much like Mary Poppins.  
  
"Um, portals?" Stephanie and Hannah exchanged glances. "What do you mean, 'portals'?"  
  
Kel was rummaging in a pouch at her waist. She looked up with a small, evil smile on her face. "You'll see!" said answered in a sing-song voice. She seemed to find what she was looking for: a letter and a royal purple ball about the size of a grape. She handed the letter to Eva and threw the ball at the wall.  
  
The ball stopped about halfway between Kel and the wall, splashing against thin air. The spot expanded until it was about until it was an oval about five and a half feet tall and three feet wide, with shimmering edges.  
  
"You and you," Keladry said pointing at Daniel and Eva as she spoke "in. Give that letter to Padraig haMinch when you get where you're going."  
  
"But-"  
  
"No 'buts,' Eva! In!"  
  
Eva shot an evil glare in Keladry's direction (If looks could kill.) and stormed through the portal, muttering under her breath. Daniel meekly followed in her wake, frequently glancing at Kel to make quite sure that the sword was still in the sheath.  
  
"Now for you," Kel said absently to Hannah, rummaging through her pouch again. Hannah took a step towards the already-open portal.  
  
"No!" Kel practically yelled "Not that one!" She turned and threw another ball, blue this time, at the opposite wall. It hit thin air halfway to the wall and expanded like the other had.  
  
Kel handed another letter to Hannah. "Give this to Lady Adriane of Moonsward, and give her my regards. Also tell her that I will be attending tea next Tuesday."  
  
"Um, OK." Hannah said, her feet already taking her to the newly opened portal.  
  
"Bye, Hannah!" Stephanie yelled as Hannah disappeared. "Now where do I go?" She asked, bouncing a bit on her heels.  
  
"You, my dear, are going to Vixen."  
  
Stephanie's face lost a little of its cheer. "Vixen? Who's that?"  
  
"Well, if what your friend Eva tells me about you is true, I don't want to be anywhere near you when you find out who Vixen is," Kel replied cryptically with a very evil smirk on her face as she withdrew a red ball from her pouch and handed a letter to Stephanie. "From what I understand, your stay with her will be, um, interesting," Kel said, her smile broadening.  
  
Stephanie warily accepted the letter Kel was holding out and stepped through the portal.  
  
Keladry heaved a sigh of relief and withdrew a gold-tinted ball from her pouch. "Finally, home. Though with that note Hannah delivered, I don't know how long my peace is going to last."  
  
She stepped through the gold-rimmed portal that led to her rooms in the palace. In an instant, the four portals snapped out of existence and life on Earth resumed like normal. For now, anyway.  
  
So, what did you think of the opening? Remember what I said. Anything, absolutely anything you want to criticize, praise, flame, anything, I would be happy to read it. Thanks! Ariane Morningstar 


End file.
